I didn’t quite get everything done this past weekend that I wanted. Something came up that required some worry and action, and that took time and energy away from the list of things I had planned. But. I did manage to get the Cheviot fleece just about finished up (the last batch is soaking), chores done, a crap-ton of yard work done, and, because I was feeling crappy and needed a mindless yet productive thing to do on Sunday, I got my shawl woven and off the loom.

It’s not perfect—I made an error about an inch before the end, but didn’t notice until after it was off because it was on the reverse side—but it’s lovely cloth and I got lots of practice squeezing the weft into place. I somehow didn’t plan out how I was going to finish the fringe, which I should have done before even putting the warp on, so the rest has been making stuff up on the fly.

Every time I weave a project that’s even slightly different from what I have been weaving, I learn something. This project was very different, so I learned a lot of stuff.

But it’s huge. In a three-yard-plus-long sort of way. It’s a shawl for a tall person with enough length to (I think) drape gracefully around arms and fall down to (possibly) my knees, but I haven’t tried it on yet, so that’s just speculation. The next step is to deal with the fringe so I can then full the cloth, then I’ll have a better idea of how it’s going to work/fall/drape. For the moment, all I can really say is that the fringe is a project unto itself. Thirty inches wide at 516 yarns across, two bundles of two to be twisted together and knotted.

Section of finished twisted fringe.

So that’ll be going on for a while. In between, I hope to get to some trouser creation, which some of the unexpected and unwanted worry and excitement of the weekend took away from. Sigh. Twisting fringe is a good, quiet, non-thinking activity, though, and I feel like I could use some of that for a bit.

Some of you have asked what this spoon carving thing was all about, and you asked to see the tools. Behold!

Left to right: hatchet, hook knife, whittling knife and sheath.

I have wanted to learn how to carve wood for literally decades. And when I saw the spoon guy’s tent at the Ashfield Fall Festival (every October in Ashfield, MA. There is a guy who sells spoons that he carves—he has hundreds of all shapes and sizes!) about 15 or so years ago, I decided that spoons would be a really good place for me to start. Now I have a place to carve, the wood to carve, and the tools to carve with. Though, I think I won’t have time to start a spoon for a few weeks yet, but you never know.

For now, fringe and trousers.

(And of course, it’s going to get into the 80’s and 90’s this week, so shawl wearing may have to wait until….October. Sigh.)